u/Aggravating-Medium-9

I just finished the book, but I still don't understand what the name meant.

Setting the numbers aside, what exactly is 'New Series'?"

Hard drive prices have gone up so much lately that I've started buying sealed hard drives on eBay.

However, while browsing this subreddit, I came across a post saying that even unused drives aren't good to use if they sit idle for too long. The lubricants in hard drives can dry out, and 'stiction' can occur, where the heads stick to the platters. And it seems like rust can occur.

If that's the case, how long can an unused hard drive maintain a like new condition? 3 years? 5 years?

Would it be safe to buy an unused hard drive with a manufacturing date from over 10 years ago?

In the movie The Matrix, the word "Matrix" refers to a virtual reality created by a computer.

And, I just learned that in William Gibson's 1984 novel Neuromancer, the place where the internet is visualized is called the Matrix.

I also searched and found out that in Season 14 of Doctor Who (which aired from 1976 to 1977), the supercomputer that creates a simulated reality is named the Matrix.

Additionally, Philip K. Dick referred to a simulation reality as a matrix in 1977.

When I look up "matrix" in an dictionary it is just mean 'an arrangement of numbers, symbols, or letters in rows and columns which is used in solving mathematical problems'

Why has a word that means a mathematical array been used to refer to virtual reality for decades?

I recently became interested in Philip K. Dick and started reading his works. While I haven't read all of his novels yet (in fact, there are still more that I haven't read than I have), I think I've roughly covered most of his most famous ones, so I'd like to ask for recommendations if there are any works similar to his.

When i search for things like "works similar to Philip K. Dick," most of the results are works dealing with confusing mental states, works about Cyberpunk, works about simulation reality, or works with liberal political message.

However, I believe Philip K. Dick's true characteristic is the exploration of "what is real."

Most of his works either feature a protagonist wandering in search of the real, or they make the reader ask the question of what is real. Not every single one of Philip K. Dick's novels is like this, but at least his most famous works, and the works he considered most important, are all about this.

What is true reality? What is the real 'me'? What is a true human being? What is true life and true death? What is true God?

The protagonists in his works discover that what they had believed to be the obvious truth until then is actually fake, or mixture of the real and the fake, or more complex than they had thought, and they set out to find out what is real.

Or they start searching for a small truth and end up confronting a great truth(The protagonist in The Man in the High Castle starts by searching for what a genuine antique is and ends up facing a fragment of true reality, and the protagonist in Faith of Our Fathers starts by looking for true poetry, then searches for the true appearance of the leader, and ends up facing the true God.)

This is not simply a theme Philip K. Dick enjoyed writing about, it is a problem he was interested in throughout his life.

In his 1981 interview with Greg Rickman, Philip K. Dick talked about an experience when he was high school student he asked a clerk at a radio repair shop how the machine worked. The clerk answered that a wire sends an electric current to change the magnetic force of the magnet, and the coil moves due to the magnet's magnetic field to vibrate the air. To this, Philip K. Dick replied, "Oh! We're not hearing the music, we're hearing the simulation of the music," and then he debated with the clerk about whether what was coming out of the speaker was real music or an simulation of music.

He say he didn't know anything about philosophy or ontology at the time, but he had interested in such things from then on. (https://philipdick.com/mirror/audio/PKD_interview1981-pt1.mp3)

Looking at the his intervew and essay, it clearly shows that what he was always interested in was the what is real in this world.

Anyway, I want to know if there are any works similar to Philip K. Dick.

So far, the only ones I've read that felt similar were Robert Heinlein's They and The Unpleasant Profession of Jonathan Hoag.

Other than that, although I haven't read them yet, it seems like Keith Laumer's Night of Delusions and some of Daniel Galouye's novels are similar to Philip K. Dick.

Ursula K. Le Guin's The Lathe of Heaven is also frequently mentioned as a work similar to Philip K. Dick, but although I haven't read it yet and have only read reviews, it doesn't seem like a similar work to him.

This novel seems about a person who turns dreams into reality through a machine. Since it deals with the alteration of reality and a pseudo-reality (dream), it does feel somewhat similar, however, the characters in this novel seems know what reality is and do not seem to experience any confusion regarding what is real.

The relation between perception/consciousness and reality is a theme often dealt with in Philip K. Dick's novels, but the reality alteration in The Lathe of Heaven doesn't seem to be about the impact of perception and consciousness on reality, but rather simply functions as a superpower. (Again, I haven't read this novel myself and am judging based on people's reviews, so if I've misunderstood anything, please let me know.)

It's fine if it's not a novel.

Movies (Dark City, eXistenZ, The Truman Show, Matrix 1, etc. I'm convinced all these movies were made under Philip K. Dick's influence. In fact, David Cronenberg said that eXistenZ was made as an homage to Philip K. Dick https://uncleanarts.com/interview-david-cronenberg/).

Video games (Arkane Studios' 2017 game Prey felt similar to Philip K. Dick).

Comics, etc

It's also fine even if it's not SF

I bought Firmament, Myst, and Obduction from gog.

I decided to play Obduction first, and for the past 30 minutes, I've just been wandering around the town without a clue about what to do. I assume there is a puzzle somewhere that I need to solve to progress, but I have no idea what the puzzle is, where to find it, or how to solve it.

I came here to ask how other people handle it when they are completely lost.

When you get stuck, do you immediately look up a guide or a gameplay video? Or do you feel that using a guide ruins the fun of the game, so you just keep wandering around until you figure it out?

If you prefer the latter, do you have any personal tips?

I am checking which games to buy before the PS3 and Vita stores close.(Sony has announced that they will close the PS3 and PS Vita stores next year.)

I roughly know which PS3 and Vita games are good and which are not. However, I know almost nothing about PS1 games and have never experienced them, so I don't know what is interesting and what isn't.

Could you recommend some must-play PS One Classic games available on the PS Store?"

One day in 1974, Philip K. Dick woke up from a nap and shouted that his son needed medical attention.

A pediatrician had examined the child shortly before and stated that there was nothing wrong.

However, Dick insisted that his son had a right inguinal hernia and was in a critical condition. Upon examination in the hospital emergency room, the doctor gave the exact same diagnosis as Philip K. Dick.

This is an anecdote that Philip K. Dick frequently mentioned to prove that he was not crazy.

I would like to know if there are any third-party accounts (such as from the pediatrician, his son, or the ER doctor) regarding the incident where Philip K. Dick identified his son's illness before the doctors, aside from his own interviews

Edit:

i want to know this, because if Philip K. Dick's own account is the only testimony for this incident, it could be a lie. And if it is a lie, it's highly likely that he was suffering from mental illness. 

However, If this had actually happened and supported by third-party testimony. well, I don't know exactly what it would be, but it would require a different explanation.

This is from a 1974 interview featured in the , Philip K. Dick: The Last Interview: And Other Conversations.

When the interviewer asked his thoughts on modern day sci-fi literature, he said, None of us knew how to write except for Ray Bradbury, but the authors debuting these days actually know how to write.

As far as I know, Robert Heinlein, Arthur C. Clarke, and Isaac Asimov were also wrote their works during the same era as Philip K. Dick and Ray Bradbury. Does this mean that in Philip K. Dick's eyes, even they were considered writers who couldn't write?

(Contains spoilers)

The story begins in a completely communized world, where a young Vietnamese man named Chien is forced into buying medicine by an old veteran.

After returning home and taking the medicine, Chien watches a televised speech by the Supreme leader, who is based in Beijing. However, all he sees is a grotesque machine making noise.

He thinks he was tricked into taking a drug, but he discovers that what he took was a tranquilizer and anti-hallucinogen. So, he wasn't hallucinating from the drug, he was seeing reality.

Soon after, a young woman is come into Chien's apartment.

She reveals that she is a member of a secret group and that they intentionally gived him the medicine. They also see something else when they watch the Supreme leader's speech under the influence of the anti-hallucinogen,the problem is that each of them sees something entirely different.

She tells Chien that the Party has recognized him as a rising talent. With a little help from her group, he could climb the ranks high enough to attend a banquet in Beijing where the Supreme leader himself will be present. She asks him to attend this banquet under the influence of the medicine so he can witness the leader's true form and report back to them.

Accepting her proposal, Chien eventually attends the banquet in Beijing, just as planned. There, he sees a transparent entity. This transparent figure devours, kills, and destroys the people around it, and restore and resurrect them, all while slowly approaching Chien.

Feeling the sheer disgust and hatred the entity radiates toward humanity, Chien realizes its true identity.

It was the entity that created life, and the entity that takes it away, the one who raise the dead, possesses eternity, created imperialism, created the Yankees, created the Party, created the Party members, created the Party's opponents, and created every single blade of grass. It was God.

Feeling that he retains his own pride and dignity, Chien sets down his glass, slowly walks to the balcony, and throws himself out the window. He then wakes up back in the banquet hall with a headache.

Upon returning home, Chien tells the woman to run away. But realizing that it is impossible to escape from it, he tells her to just forget it all. The story ends with them having a brief conversation about music and religion, and embracing each other.

This story and some of Philip K. Dick's works, contains almost every element found in the Lovecraft or Thomas Ligotti.

The veiled truth of the world, cults, the incomprehensible and terrifying dark side of the universe that humans cannot grasp, and divine entities that view humanity as mere toys or insects.

I think the reason some of the Dick's works, like this one, are read as unique sci-fi rather than horror is the protagonist's reaction. Unlike the protagonists in Lovecraft or Ligotti's stories who succumb to despair and go mad when the veil is lifted and they witness the truth, Dick's protagonists never lose their will, pride, and dignity to the very end.

Other than that difference, they feel almost identical to me.

I am not American, so I have never actually met an American Gen Z in person.

However, looking at various social media platforms, I feel that the mindset of some Gen Z is similar to the characters in the movie.

American culture has always valued masculinity, but I have never seen a culture pursuing masculinity become as popular as it is with the current Generation Z. They have a strong obsession with chiseled faces and physiques, as well as men's pride.

Tyler Durden says they were abandoned by their fathers and are the orphans of history. Looking at what some Gen Z say on social media, it seems they feel isolated. They seem to feel that women hate them, previous generations are indifferent toward them, and society is hostile, or at least , don't care about them.

Furthermore, their political ideologies, as perceived on social media, are quite radicalized. Many of them are either far-right or far-left, and they believe that the use of violence to pursue their political beliefs is justified in certain situations.

Also, i can often see they are craving male-only groups.

I know that social media makes a vocal minority appear larger than it is, so there aren't actually as many of these people in reality as it seems on the internet. However, it seems certain that they are emerging in numbers that cannot be ignored, more than 10 years ago, i didn't see this many people like this.

I am not saying Tyler Durden's beliefs is identical to theirs. There are major differences between Tyler Durden and their beliefs. Tyler Durden believed that civilization itself and consumerism suppressed masculinity and enslaved men. In contrast, while these young men are hostile to modern civilization, they seem to admire traditional culture, and they don't show any critical awareness regarding consumerism.

Additionally, Tyler Durden equated God with fathers, interpretation being abandoned by a father as being abandoned by God, thereby showing a cynical attitude toward religion. On the other hand, some Gen Z seem to have a strong attachment to religion.

But it is also true that there are many similarities, the pursuit of masculinity, the fear of losing masculinity, the feeling of being abandoned by the father generation, the belief that pursuing masculinity and violence can provide an exit from their circumstances, the contempt for meaningless social systems, and a strong sense of solidarity among themselves.

I don't know if this is simply a coincidence, or if the author of Fight Club wrote it because he sensed these societal changes. But I find it fascinating.

*I know that in Lovecraft's original works, there is no direct description that Azathoth is dreaming this world. I am aware that this is an influence from Mana-Yood-Sushai in the novel 'The Gods of Pegana', and because Azathoth was created with Mana-Yood-Sushai's influence, other writers applied Mana-Yood-Sushai's lore to Azathoth. However, since this is a setting widely used in Cthulhu Mythos works and many TRPGs, and has been used since right after Lovecraft's passing, please consider this a based on the general works related to the Cthulhu Mythos.

When a person dreams, they always become something with an ego and consciousness, experiencing the dream world they have created.

It is never like a computer simulation program where you just build the world and passively watch it without any consciousness.

You might experience the dream as your self, or you might become a different gender, a different race or nationality, or even an animal, but the fact that you experience the dream as a conscious being remains unchanged.

If Azathoth's dream is like a human's dream, wouldn't it also be experiencing this world as some kind of conscious being?

Perhaps one of the lesser gods is Azathoth's avatar, or maybe it has become an ordinary human, struggling in life without knowing who he is. Or it could even be living as a wolf in the plains, or as someone's cat.

Of course, Azathoth is a transcendent, incomprehensible entity completely different from humans or animals, but it isn't strange at all for an avatar to be a completely different being from its true substance.

In numerous religions and mythologies, like Shinto, Christianity, and Hinduism, it is quite common for a god to become a mere human.

Think about computer games, the most violent person in the world could play game using the most kind hearted character as their avatar, and the person with the highest intelligence in the world could play game using the most foolish character as their avatar.

An avatar can be entirely different from its true nature.

Ever since I learned about the Cthulhu Mythos and Azathoth's dream, this thought has constantly crossed my mind

The thought that maybe, within its own dream, Azathoth has become an ordinary human and is experiencing this world.

In Afghanistan, the Soviet Union suffered 10,000 to 20,000 deaths and 400,000 wounded. As far as I know, this war became one of the causes of the Soviet Union's collapse.

In the Vietnam War, the US suffered 58,000 deaths and 300,000 wounded, which sparked a nationwide anti-war movement.

In the Iraq War, 4,800 US soldiers died and 30,000 were wounded. The casualties and financial toll in Iraq became one of the reasons for Obama's victory in 2008.

In the current Ukraine War, hundreds of thousands of Russians have died and over a million have been wounded, yet there seems to be absolutely no public opposition to this war in Russia right now.

Looking at the news, Putin's approval ratings consistently show high numbers of around 70% to 80%. Furthermore, when I visit Russian websites and use a translator, the atmosphere is incredibly peaceful, as if nothing is happening at all.

What is the reason for this?

The characteristics of a bot that I know of include

frequently using emojis,

frequently using symbols like '-' or '~',

writing either excessively verbosely or excessively briefly.

Besides those, what other characteristics can help identify a bot?

Itdbay.com

I see a few products with good prices, but I've never heard of this site before, and no reviews come up when I search the site's name.